Mac in a heartbeat if for no other reason I do not have to buy virus programs to keep my unit free of crap.

Some day I might have to but not now.

If you want to run windows on the Mac you can. Not sure why you would but you can.

That is a major misconception. Macs can get malware just like any other computer in the world. There are just less of them in the world because of Mac's smaller market share. Why write a program to infect macs that have maybe 10% market share, when you can write a +80% market share windows.

With all that said, go Linux, because it's free and because you like doing stuff the hard way.

Apple Care is three years. once that runs out the machine is out dated. Laptops are basically a throw away product with a 3 year life span.

100% not true. Laptops can have a long life as long as you get the max memory when you first buy it. If you are graphic designer, software developer, video editor, hacker, or are in some kind of role that requires some serious "firepower," then I'd say you're right. For most everyone else, laptops will last a long time.

Not even remotely true at all. The only people who don't realize how you can upgrade a Mac are the people who don't know anything about computers other than how to boot them up and surf the web. It takes a little "smarts" to do it, but it easily can be done. How many people with PCs do you know that are bossing 32GB of RAM in their system. Probably none.

The new macs can't be upgraded. You have to have everything installed from the jump. After that, it is what it is. A lot of the mac hardware is built right into the mother board. This allows for a faster computer, but makes it impossible to easily upgrade in the future.

I personally won't switch to Windows 8 until I get a touchscreen. That said, I definitely plan on switching to Windows 8.

I'm not convinced on their phone devices yet, as where I'm pretty happy with my Android. I suppose it will depend on what their app library looks like. But as it is, I'm more likely to switch to Open WebOS on Android than Windows for mobile. (once it's viable, of course) Even today, with WebOS being dead a year, it's still the best mobile OS in existence.

The new macs can't be upgraded. You have to have everything installed from the jump. After that, it is what it is. A lot of the mac hardware is built right into the mother board. This allows for a faster computer, but makes it impossible to easily upgrade in the future.

The reason apple build non-upgradable hardware has nothing to do with speed, it has to do with $$$.

It's the same reason the iPhone doesn't have a uSD slot unlike most high end Android and Blackberry phones.

Why put a uSD slot in a phone when you can charge 10x per GB for onboard flash storage and have a built in artificial product limitation?

I personally won't switch to Windows 8 until I get a touchscreen. That said, I definitely plan on switching to Windows 8.

I'm not convinced on their phone devices yet, as where I'm pretty happy with my Android. I suppose it will depend on what their app library looks like. But as it is, I'm more likely to switch to open source WebOS on Android than Windows for mobile. (once it's viable, of course)

Interesting given that the Windows 8 UI is purpose designed for mobile devices (it's actually one of the few innovative and unique products MS has ever built), and it a massive kluge on the desktop.

100% not true. Laptops can have a long life as long as you get the max memory when you first buy it. If you are graphic designer, software developer, video editor, hacker, or are in some kind of role that requires some serious "firepower," then I'd say you're right. For most everyone else, laptops will last a long time.

Sure. My first Mac Book Pro lasted 5 years. What I mean is the technology improves so much, the latest being retina display. I like the new stuff and I figure $500 bucks a year to have a new machine every three years is well worth it to me.

Interesting given that the Windows 8 UI is purpose designed for mobile devices (it's actually one of the few innovative and unique products MS has ever built), and it a massive kluge on the desktop.

I haven't gotten a chance to use it, so I'm not prepared to judge it yet. That said, I love the concept of it, and understand what they're going for. Myself, I really want a touch screen desktop interface. Not exclusively - I'll always want to use a mouse - but I really like the idea of being able to manipulate my desktop through the screen the same way I do my mobile devices. I think Microsoft knows what they're doing better than anyone else at the desktop, and believe that Windows 8 is a strong step in the right direction towards what I want in the future. I don't hardly believe they've "nailed it" in their first try, but I like the direction it's going.

As far as the mobile goes, I am a huge fan of the Open WebOS platform, and know for sure that they got it right because I used it for a year. Maybe the Windows 8 mobile platform is equally elegant, but I doubt it, and I don't know how inclined I am to move to it given what I've got invested into Android right now. If I can get Open WebOS on Android in 12-24 months, I'll be set for a good long time. Obviously, I'm a unique case. There are not that many people who really know the advantages that WebOS has over the other platforms.

I haven't gotten a chance to use it, so I'm not prepared to judge it yet. That said, I love the concept of it, and understand what they're going for. Myself, I really want a touch screen desktop interface. Not exclusively - I'll always want to use a mouse - but I really like the idea of being able to manipulate my desktop through the screen the same way I do my mobile devices. I think Microsoft knows what they're doing better than anyone else at the desktop, and believe that Windows 8 is a strong step in the right direction towards what I want in the future. I don't hardly believe they've "nailed it" in their first try, but I like the direction it's going.

As far as the mobile goes, I am a huge fan of the Open WebOS platform, and know for sure that they got it right because I used it for a year. Maybe the Windows 8 mobile platform is equally elegant, but I doubt it, and I don't know how inclined I am to move to it given what I've got invested into Android right now. If I can get Open WebOS on Android in 12-24 months, I'll be set for a good long time. Obviously, I'm a unique case. There are not that many people who really know the advantages that WebOS has over the other platforms.

Oh there's definitely a market for touchscreen interaction on the desktop, but it's a small one and will continue to shrink and morph because the desktop/laptop market is going away, slowly but surely. It's being replaced by tablets and tablet/laptop hybrids that fulfill the needs to 80%+ of consumers, because 80% of consumers don't use a computer for anything other than consuming media.

The desktop/laptop market will remain, but will primarily be used by gamers and content producers (i.e. the people building software for tablets).

Trying to meld two entirely different purposes into one OS is will certainly work to some degree, but it just means you have an OS that is a jack of all trades and master of none. Add in the insane decision to have two incompatible versions of Win8 for mobile devices (Pro that is x86 based and RT that is ARM based like Andoid/iOS/BBOS) and its a disaster in the making because that decision completely negates any gains there are to be had from having a 'unified' desktop and mobile OS. x86 will never compete with ARM in the mobile arena.

Just wait till hordes of people who are buying Win8 Pro devices and apps try to upgrade to a Win8 RT device (or visa versa) and find out that none of their applications are compatible anymore and they have to repurchase *everything* for zero gain in actual functionality.

It's for both reasons. It is faster to have hardware built directly to the mother board then to have it bottleneck on an expansion slot, but they also did it for the $$$.

No, it's cheaper and better product lock in. Whether you have a video card or other peripheral onboard or in an expansion slot its still connected on the same PCI bus (the only difference is that thing isn't soldered on). You can get some speed (or rather efficiency) increase by having various components on the same die as the CPU (e.g. and on die memory controller or an integrated CPU/CPU like newer Intel and AMD chips), but that kind of configuration is extremely limited by the physical size of the die, thermal limitations, and design/cost complexity.

And the fundamental limitation of all desktops is currently disk and network I/O.

There's a reason nVidia and ATI still own the high end GPU market despite both AMD and Intel having onboard (on die even) video hardware now. Ivy bridge has pretty much killed the entry level GPU market, but gets rocked still by discrete GPUs

so much discussion about this and that and whose is better. windows 8 effin sucks. if you are into hardcore gaming then u must go the windows route, work and programming. if ur just a daily consumption user id go the mac route

100% not true. Laptops can have a long life as long as you get the max memory when you first buy it. If you are graphic designer, software developer, video editor, hacker, or are in some kind of role that requires some serious "firepower," then I'd say you're right. For most everyone else, laptops will last a long time.

+1. I am running Windows 8 on a 2006 Dell Vostro. It is a dual core with 4GB of RAM.

Only upgrade I made since purchase was a solid state drive.

Worst thing about the machine is it is freakin heavy. Runs office, basic image editing, web browsing, etc.. no issue.

That is a major misconception. Macs can get malware just like any other computer in the world. There are just less of them in the world because of Mac's smaller market share. Why write a program to infect macs that have maybe 10% market share, when you can write a +80% market share windows.

With all that said, go Linux, because it's free and because you like doing stuff the hard way.

Let me echo HiLife. If you get plugged into the vulnerability community, you will find plenty of issue with BSD / Mac.

Virus scanners are dead by the way. Most companies have moved to threat prevention and heuristic scanning to prevent the pattern of attacks. Virus scan engines are retroactive.

so much discussion about this and that and whose is better. windows 8 effin sucks. if you are into hardcore gaming then u must go the windows route, work and programming. if ur just a daily consumption user id go the mac route

I hope this post wasn't supposed to support that Mac is better because it reads like this:

If you want or need to do something productive use a windows machine if you want to surf the web get a mac